Hey all i come here with a little project that you guys can participate in..
Heres my character
http://home.ma.rr.com/infinityfilmz/kidweight.jpg
Yeh i know.. not that great, but man is he ever cocky...

Well now to the fun part that you guys get to help on..
You get the pleasure of suggesting little things for me to do with him.. Poses, animations whatever... The good part is that when i post back you get to critique it, and slap me around if i mess up too badly..

basically i'm asking for some input on things to do with my character.. I finally got him rigged to the point that i feel pretty comfortable with his deformations, but i have ran into a brick wall now.. I can't get ideas of things to do.. Any suggestion that i could get from you guys would help...Critique to your hearts content because that is the only way i will learn..

SplineGod

06-24-2003, 06:15 AM

Animate him picking up the weights. :)

Infinity3d4life

06-24-2003, 06:17 AM

Duhhh.. why didn't i think of that.. Thanks for the reply SplineGod.. I will give it a shot, and see how it goes...

SplineGod

06-24-2003, 06:30 AM

BTW, the character looks great. Nice and clean.
This can be a simple animation but will allow you to focus on some basic stuff. I think it will look cool.
A suggestion would be to have him think that the weight is too heavy but he lifts it like a balloon and is shocked (doesnt know his own strength). :)

Infinity3d4life

06-24-2003, 06:37 AM

Nice suggestion.. i really like that idea.. give me some time and i will post back...I think it might be cool looking..

Emmanuel

06-24-2003, 12:40 PM

I would love to see one of the weights fall down :D
The rest is up to Your imagination...he could fall back or forward...

Infinity3d4life

06-24-2003, 10:07 PM

Thanks for the suggestions.. This animation process is harder than i thought.. Here is a little test i did today.. I have to find a process of timing because i still don't understand editing in the graph editor.. Critique to your heart content, this is only my third animation attempt, and i did this in an hour or so..

the animation looks like it is progressing really well. heres one crit: the camera moves with the character. I think it would look better if it just stood still looking at the weightlifter, instead of moving up and down with him.

Triple G

06-25-2003, 05:12 AM

I agree about keeping the camera stationary. The way I usually animate is I'll start by setting all my keys to stepped. This way there's no interpolation between keys, and I can work on getting good, strong poses. It also makes it easier to get the timing for the entire shot down...there are less keys to manage at this point. Then, I'll go in and add the inbetweens, and change the keys to either bezier spline or TCB spline, and tweak the speed of my ease ins/outs. Then I'll check my arcs, making sure nothing's moving too linearly, add or adjust keys as necessary, and add any little finishing touches.

It's actually pretty close to the method Todd Grimes describes on his Body Animation DVD (I started using some of his techniques once I saw it). :thumbsup: Keith Lango also has a great tutorial (http://www.keithlango.com/popThru/popThru.html) on his site covering a similar and very effective animating technique. It's Maya-based, but is still very applicable to Lightwave. :)

Oh, and incase you don't already own a copy, get over to Amazon and pick up The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams. (You can thank me later...:p )

SplineGod

06-25-2003, 05:15 AM

I agree about the camera. It looks like its targetted or parented to the barbells or something. Just lock it down.
The middle of the bar should bend before the weights come up and then they should spring and bounce up.
Looking good so far. :)

Infinity3d4life

06-25-2003, 05:37 AM

Hey thanks for the pointers.. I own the Todd Grimes DVD set, and i really want to study it.. I did target the camera to the weight so i will go back and try to readjust somethings... I'LL BE BACK...:buttrock:

dark_lotus

06-25-2003, 08:31 AM

Bring the weights to life and have a martial arts melee.

*starts heavy breathing*

great character too!

Infinity3d4life

06-26-2003, 06:46 PM

Hey fellas i finally got sometime to sit down and check out the Todd Grimes video on body animation.. I have to say that i ran a quick little experiment using his techniques, and the results were really great.. I just have to nail the timing down, but the whole technique of using hold frames, and tweak the inbetweens is awesome.. I wish i could maybe slow down, or move some keyframes around so that i could get a better timing on my little test.... I'll post the new weight test soon...:buttrock:

SplineGod

06-26-2003, 07:13 PM

It sounds like Keith Langos method of animating.
Its a good way to animate because it mimics the way traditional Cel animation is done. The lead animator sets up keyposes (keyframes) and sets up a timing sheet (dope sheet) for the inbetweeners to follow. The inbetweener draws the inbetweens (grunt work) based on the timing sheet.
Check out this link:
http://www.keithlango.com/popThru/popThru.html
and this one:
http://www.freetoon.com/

Emmanuel

06-26-2003, 08:10 PM

Oh yeah, and get "The Animator's Survival Kit" :))

Although someone already mentioned "The Animator's Survival Kit",
I would like to emphasize the importance of "The Animator's Survival Kit", because when it comes to weights and timing, "The Animator's Survival Kit" will teach You everything You need and more, in a very entertaining and motivating way.

So, I surely can recommend "The Animator's Survival Kit", if I haven't already...

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